Days 36 & 37, 30th April - 1 st May Berlin - Frankfurt

Day 36-

We got up this morning and had breakfast, then caught a taxi over to the start of our Hidden Berlin tour. There's construction and roadworks absolutely everywhere here and consequently the taxi got stuck in long queues by the Brandenburg Gate, seeing us 5 mins late- lucky we had left early. I rang the tour company supplied ph number to let them know, but it didnt go anywhere?! Anyhow turned out we were the only people booked today so we got a private tour with a lovely Italian guide Valentina. She has a masters in art history and is really passionate, married a German and has remained in Berlin.

It turned out to be a 4 hour walking tour, which is fine but would have been good if we had been told as we were a bit cold, but stopped to buy a couple of things and were all good to go!
She took as to too many things to write about now, but there's the old, the new, the renovated, then the pulled down and re-renovated!
But still there are huge bullet holes everywhere in the building walls as a reminder of what has gone before during the war. The Jewish quarter is painfully obvious, where there was a school next to the remains of a retirement home, alongside a cemetery which was later desecrated by the Nazis.

There is also a bronze monument called 'the trains to life, the trains to death' where 2 sets of statues depict the German Jewish children were sent to Britain in 1938. The trains to life were the richer children who later returned alive (only to find their parents gone and dead). The other statue - trains to death, came for the remaining children in 1940- where the children were sent on trains, to the camps and ultimately their deaths.

I related to this in some ways as my father as a 2 or 3 year old English child, was sent away from his mother (& a father away fighting in the war) from London during the time of bombings- twice. Leaving his mother and being sent to billet families who were complete strangers. If I recall correctly he remembers the tag on his coat with his details, the same as the German children in the statues we saw today, who were sent to Britain. He was lucky enough to come back both times but with memories of loneliness as any wee boy would, in this awful situation.

As bad as the Nazis were in WW II, the Russians who invaded after this were just as evil and they sent the men to slave labour camps in Russia, with very few returning alive and the women and children were left to fend for themselves. These women had no help so they cleaned up the rubble and used the old bricks to make concrete and rebuilt their houses. Sadly now, investors have bought many of these houses and these people, some still alive and very elderly are being told they have to leave the houses they built with their bare hands. Berliners are understandably very angry about this. It is also blowing the house prices though the roof, as foreign investors buy in and over inflate property prices.

Valentina also took us to the only surviving Jewish bakery, still owned by the same family. She bought us the traditional 'Berliners' which are like round doughnuts with a sugary icing and they are filled with overflowing jam jelly - the were so light and fresh! We took these and sat with her in a garden square which had a memorial to show how being marched away to the camps, looked to the children when the Germans came to take away the Jews ( and charged each person young or old, to actually be taken away- a cost of 8 marks per adult and 3 per child.)

We visited the square where the Nazis burned 20,000 books during crystal nights & smashed the windows of Jewish owned shops. The square has a memorial in the ground with a empty library where you can see the sculpture of many empty bookshelves.

We walked also past many museums and the houses where theres a definite difference between the old and poorer east side of Berlin and the more powerful and affluent west Berlin - this is pre 1989 when the wall came down. Also passed Angela Merkels apartment, the German chancellor. It has secret service and guards posted 24/7 as she apparently prefers to live here, amongst the people.

After this we walked to where the Berlin wall used to be. It was in fact a series of 4 walls of various heights, with spikes and barbed wire in between. We climbed a tower which gave a good view over the top. The nearest wall is the original and it is all very sobering.

We said goodbye to the guide after this and walked a distance then caught a cab back to the hotel, beautifully ahead of the pouring rain that came after. We were pretty tired so got room service for the first time- it came on its own table! Hot baths and I begin the writing marathon- oh for a european keyboard which I find easier to use than the glass one!

Day 37-

Our last day exploring! We caught a taxi today over to the Reichtstag as Graeme has this and the Brandenburg Gate on his tick list. Today in europe it is 'May Day' which is a public holiday so all the shops are shut. But the plus side is that there is no pressure cooker huge traffic jams everywhere or people rushing to work today. It was a carnival atmosphere at the monuments, which are all quite a way from the middle of Berlin city. It was great, a sunny day, all the bright green leaves out on the rows of trees, music, food and relaxed people. We soaked up the atmosphere, Graeme with a german hotdog thingee and I had a banana and nutella crepe. Then we got a beer and went and sat where a band was playing great music. There is no rubbish here as there is a recycling incentive of 25-50c per cup or plastic bottle, so everyone picks them up. A lot of smokers though, as is everywhere pretty much in europe.

Next we wandered to the Brandenburg gate and the holocaust memorial, along with seeing a large section of the Berlin wall which has been left along with a wall of information and photos. Then we walked to checkpoint Charlie which is really corny, with men dressed up as soldiers and you get photos with them.

Caught a taxi back to opposite our hotel where there is this amazing Italian restaurant called Vapiano (there is also one in Melbourne). You are given a credit card and you go and choose which pasta you want, order it and they cook it fresh in front of you. They have water baths to cook the fresh pasta and pull the herbs off the plants right there....it is so fresh and delicious. You take the card up at the end and they read the swiped orders off and you pay then, saves on waiters!
Went to the hotel and got our bags and another taxi out to Tegel airport which is quite small. Waited about 40 mins till they opened the check ins and are now waiting to fly to frankfurt for the night, staying at the Hilton onsite before we leave for Hong kong - which is 11 hours. What a great time its been :-)